Music and Youth Culture - Essay Example

MUSIC AND YOUTH CULTURE Music is unparalleled among the arts in its power to refine, uplift, and concentrate the senses. (A Bennett 2000). At thesame time, the "diabolical bawling and twanging" so often passed off as music in our day has an equal power to degrade, eroticize, and desensitize. No one can reasonably deny music's power. For reasons not entirely understood, music affects the mind, emotions, and even the physical body as no other art form can. Its capacity to elicit powerful, even unforgettable emotional and physical responses makes music an indispensable accessory to most forms of religious worship, from the trance dancing of shamans to the singing of Christian hymns. Overall, music saturates our culture as no other art form can. It accompanies us everywhere we go: as we ride public and private transportation; shop; use the internet; work in our offices; enjoy recreation at restaurants, movie theaters, health clubs, and the like; in church; and at school. Where music is absent we often bring it along, courtesy of our radios, TVs, walkmans, and musical instruments. Because of its intoxicating, even addictive properties, music has always been recognized as a powerful vehicle for change. Whereas youth is displayed through style, music, ritual and resistance, television is less spectacular and urban, altogether more ordinary and suburban. The local youth culture is a product of interaction. It is certainly not a closed, local, culture, but neither is it an undifferentiatedly global one. And such interactions could be exemplified in a million ways. The spatial openness of youth cultures in many if not all parts of the world is clear. Across the world even the poorest of young people strive to buy into an international cultural reference system: the right trainers, a T-shirt with a Western logo, a baseball cap with the right slogan. Music draws on a host of references which are fused, rearticulated, played back. (Tracy Skelton 1997) The youth turned to rock music since it represented freedom, sex and violence. In less than a decade, it surged from the cultural underground of juke joints and blues musicians into the American mainstream, entrancing an entire generation whose parents had listened to music of an altogether different nature. Since emerging in the fifties, rock music has dominated American culture, and while the styles have changed, the basic tropes have not: Illicit sex, drugs, and rebellion are as distinctively a part of rock music culture today as they were when the likes of Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles first appeared on the scene decades ago. Rock musicians are often held to Josiah Royce's creed of the Romantic artist: "Trust your genius; follow your noble heart; change your doctrine whenever your heart changes, and change your heart often." (Theodore Gracyk 1996). Rock music began life as a medium of rebellion. Rock is far more than mere dissent; from its corrosive beginnings -- Elvis Presley's defiant sexuality and the subtly leering lyrics of Jerry Lee Lewis -- much of rock and roll has always been about subversion, overthrow, and revolutionary change rather than polite civil disagreement. Rock 'n' roll has been in our collective face from the get-go, always questioning and even assaulting authority and tradition. Sixties counterculture leader Jerry Rubin admitted in his garbled manifesto Do It! that "the New Left [of the sixties counterculture] sprang ... from Elvis' gyrating pelvis.... Elvis Presley ripped off Ike Eisenhower by turning our uptight young awakening bodies around. Hard animal rock energy beat/surged hot through us, the driving rhythm arousing repressed passions. Music to free the spirit.... Elvis told us to let go!" The first theme of the rock and roll counterculture, as everyone knows, was sex. Not, of course, the old-fashioned kind that cemented marriages and begat children, but the modern, recreational kind, the kind that has produced a pandemic of venereal diseases, abortions, unwed mothers, and broken homes. Rock and roll's love affair with sex began with coy word plays and subculture terminology -- the term "rock 'n' roll" itself, like "jazz" before it, is in fact slang for sexual intercourse -- but has now become open, unabashed, and undisguised. From Elvis' gyrating hips and the phallic symbolism in rock stars' stage gestures and props, we've regressed to popular bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jesus Lizard, who sometimes play in the nude and perform unmentionable bodily functions onstage. Other groups, including mega-stars like Madonna and Marilyn Manson as well as lesser-known bands representing the new "porn rock" subculture, feature strippers and act out sexual perversions for their feverish audiences. From sexual license, rock music moved on to drugs. Nowadays, the drug songs of the sixties, like the Beatles' seemingly innocuous "Hey, Jude" (about heroin use) and Simon and Garfunkel's "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" (marijuana) seem almost droll beside modern rap music's litany of crack-inspired horrors and the mass consumption of psychedelic drugs like Ecstasy at teenage rave parties. Rock 'n' roll pays homage to violence. Much-maligned rappers have drawn most of the fire lately, but the punk rockers and Medusa-haired heavy metal groups of the seventies and eighties had turned musical mayhem into an art form long before Snoop Doggy Dog. An example of an excellent rock star is Elvis Presley. Elvis was a young, guitar-wielding, hyperkinetic dervish--in a phrase, "Rockabilly Elvis." (Vernon Chadwick 1997). It is the Elvis of the U.S. Postal Service, Sam Phillips, Sun Records, Louisiana Hayride, Memphis, and Gladys. Priscilla. It is Elvis the Hillbilly Cat, the King of Western Bop, the Tupelo Flash, the World's First Atomic-Powered Singer, the Boy Who Dared to Rock, and so forth. It is the Elvis poised forever in time in the fullness of what Greil Marcus called "the Rockabilly Moment. It borrowed from white gospel, bluegrass, hillbilly boogie, black gospel, country blues, and rhythm and blues. It echoed not just the Grand Ole Opry and the Apollo Theatre but also vaudeville, and Tin Pan Alley. During his career, Elvis Presley sold more than 500 million records and grossed over $180 million at the box office. He is one of the few rock stars whose fame has extended beyond death. Since his death in 1977, the star's sales have actually increased. He still has over 400 fan clubs and a vast loyal following. To explain Elvis's consistent popularity, Peter Stromberg has argued that he symbolized an ideology called consumerism. Consumerism is the belief that if we purchase expensive goods or services they will transform our lives and allow us to enter a world free from personal discomfort. The media perpetuate that belief by supporting the institution of stardom. Stars who gleefully live lifestyles of conspicuous consumption appear to demonstrate the other world's existence. Those that appear "ordinary" become special mediators because they begin at the same starting point as the rest of us. By getting rich quick, blaming luck, and staying loyal to his humble Southern roots, Elvis Presley implied that a life of luxury is also within our grasp. Because he brings the possibility of transformation closer to a general audience, Elvis has become an especially potent mediator. Many fans adored him so much that up to now there are hundreds of Elvis Look Alike Contest all over the world. The look alike contest is a game where individuals dress up and try to imitate and look like Elvis. Elvis's ancestors, like those of most white southerners, were mostly British. The story of Elvis's forebears, like those of many white southerners, was one of restless mobility: settling, then moving on, settling again for a generation or two, then moving on again, escaping problems or seeking opportunity or both, looking for a fresh start somewhere else. a polite and humble gospel-singing southern boy, who loved his mama, greasy food, and hanging out with the boys. Many of his fans were able to identify with him because of his simple Southern upbringing. Todd Morgan, the Memphis director of media and creative development for Elvis Presley Entertainment in an interview granted to O'Meara said "I think that the magic that Elvis had in life is forever embodied in his music. His popularity is at an all-time high, and we'll see a new chapter in this story. Whether his popularity will wane in future generations is yet to be seen, but I think he was so good and so strong that he'll continue to be a force and loved by many." Nashville-born Sen. Bill Frist (Republican) tells said that "Elvis shaped the world of music decades ago and clearly continues to influence it today. His music is timeless, and I'm certain that as each new generation hears it they too will come to appreciate his inspiring talent." But perhaps it is former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who hits the right note concerning the phenomenon that is occurring today when she says, "I love his music because he was my generation. But then again, Elvis is everyone's generation and he always will be." Elvis music was unique. It was insistent and infectious but seldom heavy and never ponderous; rockabilly rhythm echoed freedom, buoyancy, and youth, with only occasional gestures toward the darker side of human nature. It was tough, bold, sexy, and wild. Sociologically, rockabilly represented the emergence of a teen-oriented consumer subculture. Increased leisure time and a spreading affluence, along with patterns of suburbanization, reinforced the new subculture. (Chadwick 1997). Youth culture then is all about relations. This is that all these relations which construct space, since they are social relations, are always in one way or another imbued with power. That is to say, such relations are not just neutral 'connections' between one cultural constellation and another, or others; they reflect in their form and their direction geographical differences in cultural influence, fashion, economic power, the spatial structure of the media industry and the dominance of Hollywood. These relationships deeply affect the meanings of cultural influences and cultural contact. (Tracey Skelton, 1998). The music of Elvis lives on until today. It has become a legend. Music as memory becomes music as materialism. This does not diminish his lifetime achievements. Legend is translated into legacy. His tapes become estate property shared by family members, corporate concerns, and increasing generations of disc-purchasing fans. The power of the latter--the uncritical cult followers--stimulates tribute after tribute, re-issue after re-issue. The beauty of death is controlled. All potential flaws of a recording artist are removed. From unhealthy addictions (alcohol, drugs, or sexual misconduct) to human errors, the promotion and marketing gurus are free to market dead musicians as they desire. (B. Cooper 2000). Tributes erase flaws. Tributes elevate successes. Tributes create new images. Career development begins where human existence ends. Talent, creativity, achievement, and excellence provide fodder for a new industry. "Elvis Lives" is more than a slogan. It's a commercial imperative in Memphis, in New York, and in the hearts of a worldwide throng of Presley record buyers. WORKS CITED PAGE Books Bennett, A. (2000). Popular Music and Youth Culture. London: MacMillan. Chadwick, Vernon. (1997). In Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Gracyk, Theodore. (1996). Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock. Durham, NC.: Duke University Press. Skelton, Tracy. (1998). Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge. Journal Articles Duffet, Mark. (2000). Transcending Audience Generalizations: Consumerism Reconsidered in the Case of Elvis Presley Fans. Popular Music and Society, 24, 2. Magazines Bonta, Steve. Is It "Only Rock 'N' Roll" Far from Being Just a Youthful Fad, Rock and Roll Music Is a Powerful Force for Subversive Cultural Social, and Political Change. The New America, 18, 7. April 8, 2002. O'Meara, Kelly Patricia. The Crown Still Fits: Nearly a Quarter after the Untimely Death of the King of Rock 'N' Roll, Elvis Presley Still Haunts Americans-Including the New Generation-Seeking Roots in a Genuine American Culture. Insight on the News, 18, 28. August 5, 2002 Read More